Entries in how to market effectively
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Writing blogs can take a lot of time, but it can be soooo worth it… if it's done properly. If you want to generate income from your blogs, there are a few tips you should take into consideration:

1) Provide tons of useful information. Don't use your blog to advertise or sell things. Use it to give people information that they will be thankful for. The more useful your blogs are, the more people will visit your website and seek out your services and products. People like to buy from reputable experts and that is how you will be perceived when you write content-rich blogs.

2) Don't keep your blog a secret. If you write a blog and then do nothing else with it, you are basically writing for yourself only. You want to get as many people to read your blog as possible. You can do this by posting links on your social media sites, submitting your blogs to blog directories and social bookmarking sites and adding links to your email blasts.

3) Be aware of keywords as you write. Your blog should flow in a regular reading style instead of being jam packed with keywords for search engine optimization, but it is very important to include some keywords as you write so that you can potentially generate some organic traffic.

4) Make it relevant and specific. Make sure the information you are putting out is relevant to the services and products you provide and is useful to a specific group of people and make sure you are targeting those people. When the right person reads the right information, they will want to hire you.

5) Tie your blogs in with promotions you are running. If you offer an array of services but you are promoting acupuncture this month, then make your blogs relevant to acupuncture.

You see them everywhere and you probably even hear about them everywhere. So what is all the hoopdy-doo?

Blogs are almost essential nowadays if you want to have a presence online and if you want to increase your visibility. Here are some of the biggest reasons why:

1) Blogs increase traffic to your website through SEO (search engine optimization) - search engines love fresh content so when you are constantly updating your clog, you are constantly telling the search engines your website is important for it to recognize.

2) Blogs generate sales when you link to them on social media - One of the best ways to get seen is to post links to your blogs on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Especially when you have targeted your followers, you will find a lot of people visiting your blog through a link you post, and then potentially hiring you.

3) Blogs can be converted into other forms of marketing so that you are leveraging your time and efforts. You can expand upon a blog and turn it into an article. You can turn it into a podcast or video, or a book of blogs.

4) Blogs help visitors to your site know that you are credible and knowledgeable. By posting consistent, useful information on your blog each week, you establish yourself as an expert in your field.

5) Blogs keep you creative and inspired. When you have to constantly come up with new topics to write on, it forces you to keep abreast of your industry and your competition. You'll find yourself feeling smarter than you did before you started blogging!

Your headline is the most important thing you will write for your sales copy. That’s because reading your headline will either lead people to read further or to leave. With a moment as crucial as that, you want to make sure you are leading them to stick around.

A headline needs to create interest, draw attention and invoke curiosity. Here are 5 guidelines to follow so you can write stellar headlines for your holistic business:

1) Make them benefit-driven. People are really only interested in things that can solve their problems or make them happy. They don’t care about you or your product or service. They care about what your product or service can do for them.

2) Tell enough, but leave them curious. If your headline says, “Massages: $100 Today,” there is nothing leaving them curious. They already know what the service is and how much it costs, and they will automatically make a decision as to whether or not they want to continue reading. But if your headline said, “Lose Yourself in a Stress-Busting Massage – Incredible Sale Today Only,” you will gain their interest and curiosity so they want to read on.

3) Speak in an active voice. This means that instead of being passive by saying something like, “Wouldn’t You Want to Lose Weight?,” say something like, “Lose 15 Pounds This Month or Your Money Back.” Be direct!

4) Realize you use headlines all the time. In an email, your headline is the subject line. On a flyer or website, it is the first line of copy. On a sales call, it is the first thing you say. On a commercial, it is the first thing that is said or shown. We use headlines all the time – make sure you choose ones that are the best you could possibly give in every situation.

5) Use sub-headlines throughout your copy. There are many people who simply skim text instead of reading it completely. For this reason, you want to sprinkle sub-headlines throughout your copy. Put the most important ideas and facts in the sub-headlines so you can be sure the skimmers are getting the most important stuff.

Today, I wanted to share this special report with you. It is packed with valuable information to help you avoid the mistakes that keep many holistic business owners from obtaining the success they deserve. It’s a must read! Get your free copy today here: Get your free copy today by signing up in the left sidebar.

Copywriting is an art and a skill that is about compelling and intriguing the reader to the point that they want to 1) continue reading and 2) take the action you want them to take. Here are 5 tips to help you write compelling copy:

1) Speak directly to the reader as if they are the only one reading it. Don’t use generalizations. Speak to the exact person that is your ideal client about their exact problems and the exact ways you can help them.

2) Avoid talking about yourself, but instead talk about them. They want to know, “what is in it for me?” They don’t care about you until after they realize you just might be able to help them.

3) Use benefit-driven language instead of telling them the features of what you are offering. A feature that a holistic doctor might offer, for example, is that they provide flexible hours. A benefit that they might offer is that patients with knee pain tend to leave the office after their first visit feeling 50% better. Speak to their emotions!

4) Keep it clear and concise. Honor your readers’ time by not dragging your copy on and on. Arrange the copy so it is easy for people who skim to pick up on the most important parts quickly. Make sure you are clear about your products and services without assuming the reader already has an understanding of what you offer.

5) Always include a call-to-action. Make it very clear what step you want the reader to take in every piece of copy you write. Do you want them to visit your website, sign up for your free e-book, call you to schedule an appointment, etc.

If you want your marketing to be effective, it is imperative that you write compelling copy. Remember that we live in a fast-paced world and you generally have 3 seconds to capture a person’s attention. If you don’t, you lose them. That’s why one of the most important investments you can make is to invest the time to learn effective copywriting or to invest the money to hire a copywriter.

Too often, we make separate marketing efforts, and we don’t get the results we deserve as a result. Writing a blog one day, then holding a seminar another day, then posting an ad another day, for example, means a lot of effort poured into many different marketing avenues.

For effectiveness, find numerous ways to repurpose your marketing efforts so that the effort is lessoned. If you write a blog, you can easily transform it into an article, turn it into a recording and/or video, and submit each medium to the various sites available (blog submission sites such as Technorati and Weblogalot, article submission sites such as ezinearticles.com and video submission sites such as YouTube and Google Video). Then you can even collect your blogs into a book, and your audios into a CD.

This is just a small sampling of what can be done. Not only does this make your marketing efforts more effective but it also increases your visibility, increasing your chances of being seen by your ideal prospects.

What businesses do you like to follow most? – Those that have a face to the company with a person that shares themselves openly in their marketing copy? Or the companies who are just companies and give you no attachment to them other than noticing what sales are going on this week? My guess is that it is the first example. This is because when business owners act like human beings and share parts of their lives and their humanness with us, we relate to them and we feel like we know them in a way.

When you are writing your sales copy, whether it be a website, an email blast, a brochure, etc., be sure to write as though you are speaking to each person individually, and share some of yourself. Showing vulnerability draws people to you and creates “friendships” instead of just business relationships. Then, when someone gets your email blast, they smile and say things like, “Bonnie sent me an email again! Wonder how her trip was.” Then, they are more likely to want to do business with you since people like doing business with people they know and like.

When you market a product, you want to make sure you are grabbing attention by basing your message on the benefits the customer will receive, not the features. The difference is this: If you were looking to buy a car, the benefits would be how safe the car is and how it will bring back your youth and make you feel free when you are driving it. The features would be that it has a sunroof and 4-wheel drive. Sure those features are great and usually are part of what make the benefits possible, but they aren’t what inspire people and often people don’t make the connection between how that feature can really benefit their lives. Be sure to spell out the benefits and make sure you are focusing your marketing message on the benefits, because that is what people care about and that is what is going to grab their attention.

How does your product or service make people feel? How does it change their lives? How does it make their lives easier? How does it bring them together with people they love? These are the types of things you want to focus on. It’s all about what is in it for the customer.

If you own a holistic-type business, are you marketing to the people who would be more apt to purchase holistic products and services? It’s a waste of time, money and energy to market to everyone and anyone, thinking that the more people you hit, the better. Why spend your time trying to convince people that aren’t of the mindset to purchase holistic remedies? Put your time and effort into marketing to people who have already proven themselves to be interested in holistic products and services.

How do you find them? You can either ask your current clients or do some research. You want to find the answers to questions like: Where do holistic-minded people hang out? What do they read? What websites do they go to? Etc.

When you are writing copy to market your business, make sure you are using wording that is clear and to the point. You will lose people if you try to be too clever. Creativity is important, but when it comes to marketing, you need to use it in a way that doesn’t make people have to think too hard.

The goal of your marketing is to sell something, whether it is selling a product, a service or an idea. In order to be effective with your marketing message, keep it simple and direct. Make sure there is no question what you are asking them to buy.

If I go to your website, I want to know by looking at your navigation buttons what I will be viewing on those web pages before I even click on them. When I open your brochure, I want to be clearly directed to the areas that interest and apply to me, and what I am looking for. If I have to spend too much time searching for what I am looking for, I will probably just move on. Don’t you find that is true for you too? Make sure you avoid that happening!﻿